France: David Lynch proposes comprehensive plan to counter rising stress and violence in 10 schools

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24 April 2010

During a news conference in Lille, France, on 18 April, award-winning filmmaker David Lynch outlined a comprehensive plan to counter rising stress and violence in 10 French schools in high-crime neighborhoods—through introduction of the stress-reducing, nonreligious Transcendental Meditation technique.

The David Lynch Foundation is a US-based charity that has provided scholarships for over 100,000 at-risk students to learn to Transcendental Meditation in hundreds of public and private schools throughout the US, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. (See www.davidlynchfoundation.org and www.dlfprojects.org.)

Research on the Lynch Foundation-sponsored schools shows that the meditation eliminates underlying causes of violent behavior by promoting coherent brain functioning while reducing acute stress, anxiety, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. At the same time, research shows the technique improves test scores and graduation rates, and reduces suspensions, expulsions, and dropouts.

''I have met many students who are diving within through Transcendental Meditation,'' Mr Lynch said. ''These students are unique individuals. They are self-sufficient, wide-awake, energetic, creative, powerfully intelligent and peaceful human beings. Meeting these students, for me, was the proof that this meditation is a profoundly good thing for our schools and for our world.''

Mr. Lynch offered the support of his Foundation to teach Transcendental Meditation, on a voluntary basis, to 5,000 students, faculty, administration, and parents in the 10 schools in France. The cost for the program will be covered by a grant from the Lynch Foundation in partnership with local philanthropists and educational agencies.

Transcendental Meditation is a simple, easily learned technique, practiced for 10 to 15 minutes twice daily, at the beginning and end of each school day. The meditation produces a unique state of restful alertness, in which the body is profoundly rested while the mind, according to brain research, is deeply settled yet wide awake inside.

More than 600 scientific research studies have been conducted on the wide-ranging benefits of the Transcendental Meditation technique in 250 independent universities and research institutes over the past 40 years, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and UCLA medical schools in the United States. The research has been published in leading peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, including the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Heart Association's Stroke and Hypertension.

The US government's National Institutes of Health has awarded more than $24 million to study the beneficial effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on hypertension, atherosclerosis, cholesterol, stroke, and heart failure.

''Please remember Transcendental Meditation is not a luxury,'' Mr. Lynch said. ''For our children who are growing up in a violent, often frightening, crisis-ridden world, it is a necessity.''

© Copyright 2010 Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation

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